Canada pledges $86M more to assist victims of famine, war in South Sudan

OTTAWA — Canada is contributing another $86 million to assist famine and war ravaged South Sudan.

International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the additional funding today on trip to the country where millions have been displaced by a civil war.

She says it will improve access to basic health services, including family planning and reproductive health care for women and girls as well as increasing access to food.

More than four million South Sudanese have been internally displaced and another two million have fled the country as refugees because of the four-year-old civil war.

Bibeau, who also met government officials on the four-day trip, says the suffering can only be alleviated if the warring factions lay down their arms.

The new funds are an addition to the Famine Relief Fund recently announced in response to the widespread food crises in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen, in which the government will match the contributions of Canadians until June 30.